Thankfully Mom appeared before Olivia could shake me or fall into a seizure fit or whatever it was she seemed about to do in the face of such pressure. I wondered again, as I had in February when I noted the weariness in her, just how long our tourism-hungry mayor could keep up the kind of pace that seemed to be leading her down the path to a heart attack or an aneurysm or a public breakdown of massive proportions.

I didn't have to handle it alone at least, my mother's ...